Prep Football: Boylan rallies to reach state semifinals

Saturday

Nov 16, 2013 at 7:44 PMNov 16, 2013 at 7:44 PM

By Matt TrowbridgeRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Boylan had the lead and the ball for the first time. Less than four minutes remained Saturday, but the Titans weren’t going to run out the clock. Demry Croft came out throwing into the teeth of a strong wind.

“We didn’t have any choice,” Boylan coach John Cacciatore said.

“They had to throw to win,” Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge coach Chris Schremp agreed after Croft mixed two runs in with three completed passes to help Boylan pick up three first downs in the waning minutes of its 21-17 Class 6A quarterfinal victory.

The Titans will now play fellow No. 1-seed Batavia (11-1), which beat Lake Forest 19-14.

“It’s amazing that Coach has a lot of faith in us to let us do that,” said Croft, who competed 21 of 29 passes for 235 yards and ran 11 times for 59 yards and two touchdowns.

It’s also amazing how clutch No. 1-ranked Boylan (12-0) has been in winning five of its 12 games by a total of 28 points.

“In a lot of the past years, there have been some blowouts, but this year has been exciting,” said Graham Smolinski, whose interception set up Boylan’s go-ahead touchdown. “There are no weeks off.”

“We take a lot of pride in being against the wall and being able to get out of it,” Croft said, “but we can’t do that for too much longer.”

Only four of Prairie Ridge’s first 35 runs gained more than five yards, but the Wolves (7-5) kept gaining three and four yards for the first 2 1/2 quarters in building a 17-7 lead. The Wolves also held Boylan to only 84 yards rushing, including a pair of stops on fourth down.

“On both sides of the ball, we fought hard and tried to blow them off the ball,” two-way Prairie Ridge lineman Shane Evans said.

Boylan suddenly stopped that in the second half, holding the Wolves to nine yards on their last nine rushes.

“We finally got their scheme down,” Smolinski said. “The big thing when you play an option team is getting a little bit of a push up front. You can shut it down at the line of scrimmage, but it all starts up front with the big boys.”

Boylan’s offense didn’t start clicking until Croft hit Brock Stull (121 yards on eight catches) for an 80-yard TD with a defender draped all over him in the final minute of the third quarter, one play after a missed Prairie Ridge field goal.

“I was screaming pass interference, but Brock still made a great catch, because Brock is a great player and that’s what he does,” Croft said.

Two drives later, Smolinski’s interception set up Boylan at the 27. A 17-yard pass to Brendan Shumaker and three runs, the last a 1-yard sneak by Croft, gave Boylan its first lead, 17-14, with 5:20 to play.

Boylan then stopped the Wolves twice more, holding them to one first down on their final four drives, including a game-ending fourth-down interception by Matt Sciame as the Titans pulled out another tight win.

“It’s not the way we would prefer it,” Cacciatore said. “The big moment thing; we talk about it all the time, but having to do this all the time is not the plan going in.”